Daniel Chodowieki - 1773 Album of Engravings: On JB Basedow's Elementary Work

Description

Daniel Chodowieki - Original 1773 Engravings. A leather bound album of copper plate engravings after Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726-1801) depicting a wide range of subjects including historical, architectural, battle, religious scenes and much more. The original name of the book is 'Kupfersammlung zu J.B. Basedows Elementarwek' or 'Copper Collection on J.B. Basedow's Elementary Work', published in 1773.

Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724-1790), one of the most influential pedagogues of the Late Enlightenment, set new standards for teaching with this 'Elementary Work which was an encyclopaedic textbook. It covered science, mathematics, history, rhetoric as well as religion and philosophy. Basedow believed that knowledge much be clarified with pictures, which meant the involvement of Chodowieki, who created most of the plates. The album contains 40 pages with engravings, and one page with a printed inscription in German and the date 1773. The images vary in size, with some pages being a single larger engraving, and others having two or four smaller scenes, as shown. On laid paper.

Condition

The album cover and the first five pages of the book are detached from the spine, and the other pages are in a fragile state. The covers are worn and rubbed with creasing to the corners, and water staining to the inside of the backboard. There is discolouration and some staining to the pages, typical for an item of this age. There are various tears to the edges of the pages, most of which are only in the margins although some extend millimetres into the images themselves. A few pages also have some historic tear repairs.

Size

20 x 26cm (7.9" x 10.2")

Artist Biography

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726-1801) was a Polish, and later German painter and printmaker with Huguenot ancestry, who is most famous as an etcher and engraver. He was admitted to the Berlin Academy in 1764 and became vice-director under Bernhard Rode in 1788. He had found his true calling, and became the most famous German graphic artist of his time. His works include several thousand etchings, usually rather small, and many drawings and paintings. His book illustrations embrace almost all the great classics. In 1797, Chodowiecki was appointed as the Director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he died on 7 February 1801.